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Thor: Tales of Asgard

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Thor: Tales of Asgard (2011) is a Direct-to-Video animated film from Marvel Animation and Lionsgate featuring the adventures of a teenage Thor, his little brother Loki, and the Warriors Three as they try to retrieve the lost Sword of Surtur from Jotunheim. Long story short: nothing goes as planned.

In the end, what starts out as a harmless adventure quickly turns deadly, and Thor must now prove himself worthy of the destiny he covets by saving Asgard itself.

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The Thor: Tales of Asgard movie provides examples of the following tropes:

Small one, but Loki's hair in both the comic and movie is clearly a jet-black. It's not clear why it was changed to brown, but possibly it was due to the problems of shading and giving depth to entirely black hair in animation. Who's to say it won't eventually turn black, after what happened in the end?

In the comics Sif has blue eyes, but here her eyes go back and forth between being blue and being brown.

Adaptational Villainy: Algrim in the comics was genuinely loyal to Asgard after cutting ties to Malekith, but here, he deeply resents Odin for not helping Svartalfheim and the Dark Elves against the Frost Giants and their subsequent subjugation and extermination of his people, going to war against the remaining Dark Elves after they turned to Surtur for help, and blames Odin and Asgard for letting the Dark Elves go extinct, now willing to use the Sword of Surtur against Asgard for revenge.

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Adorkable: Little Loki getting soaked by his "water snake" starts out so cute.

An Ice Person: The Frost Giants. Loki also, given his Frost Giant heritage.

Amazon Brigade: The Valkyries. They're an isolated group of former maidens led by the Valkyrie Brunhilde to be trained and honed in combat skill to establish independence from the sexist world of Asgard and Odin's reign. They hold a tenuous alliance with Odin and slaughter any spies sent by him to their base.

Bar Brawl: There's one involving Thor, Loki, and the Warriors Three. It ends with the bar burning down, so the bar owner goes to Odin for compensation.

Bittersweet Ending: By the end Thor and Odin reconcile their family differences, but several Frost Giants have died, Asgard and the Valkyries have been attacked, and Loki had to kill a former family friend.

Blatant Lies: Loki: (after Thor loses his sword in a public training match) "You were victorious despite the trouble with your sword's grip... Plainly it was too slick. I'll reprimand the dwarfs."

Book-Ends: When Algrim is first introduced, he commends Thor on being able to detect him in the dark, and Thor responds it was just a lucky guess. In their battle near the end of the movie, Algrim uses the Sword of Surtur to put out the fires, and Thor manages to hear him moving and pin him down.

Chick Magnet: Fandral who is a deconstruction of the trope because of how much trouble it gets him and his friends in down the road.

Evil Former Friend: Algrim. Thor won't forgive him for betraying the House of Odin, but can't forget their years-long friendship.

Evil Weapon: Word of God confirms the Sword of Surtur can influence its wielder. It influences Algrim into attacking Asgard and is essentially doing all of the fighting during the battle against Odin such as seeing through Odin's illusions.

Loki's control over water (and ice and mist by extension), as well as his immunity to the cold in Jotenheim hints at his Frost Giant heritage.

Also, the ending, with Loki murdering Algrim in cold blood and then hiding in his temple to play with his (growing) magic, hints at his future FaceHeel Turn.

Odin's damage to his eye and face by the Sword of Surtur from his fight with Algrim alludes to his one-eyed appearance later down the line.

As mentioned in the Continuity Nod, guess what are the weapons Thor would wield in the MCU by Chris Hemsworth.

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Tons of it. From Amora whispering seductively in Loki's ear (which triggers an obviously turned on expression on his face) to Sif shooting an arrow into the archery dummy's crotch to Fandral being asked how many of the Valkyries he's 'angered' to which he responds he angered enough that the archery dummy's were all made in his likeness.

Grey and Gray Morality: Nothing and Nobody is absolutely "good" or "bad" in this movie. Both sides of the Asgardians and Frost Giants have mentioned to have committed genocide against the Dark Elves, the remaining Dark Elf wants to cause genocide on both sides as revenge, Thor's ego causes him to nearly start a war, etc.

Greater-Scope Villain: Surtur himself. He was the original forger and wielder of the sword he was named after, and the Sword of Surtur serves as the MacGuffin of the film, which can change size to conform to its present wielder's hand and in itself has the power to corrupt others such as Algrim. Meanwhile, its true wielder Surtur is absent for the film minus a flashback, with Thor and Loki reconstructing a battle between their father and the ruler of Muspelheim in Jotunheim to decipher the location of his sword.

Hot for Teacher: Loki obviously has a thing for his (extremely sexy) magic teacher Amora, and she seems to reciprocate.

Jerkass Has a Point: Algrim when he called out Odin for exterminating the remaining populace of his subjugated race after they begged him for help even if they had to turn to Surtur for aid. He only responds with a I Did What I Had to Do excuse.

Kill It with Fire: The Sword of Surtur does this, burning the flesh from the bones of its victims until their skeletons are vaporized as well. This is all shown in an instant.

Morton's Fork: Odin implies he was left with this kind of situation when it came to the survival of the Dark Elves. He could have aided them in a protracted war with the Frost Giants and cost the lives of all his forces as well as inadvertently helping the Omnicidal Maniac Surtur threaten all the Nine Realms after it had been done manipulating the Dark Elves into conquering Jotenheim or formed an unstable but steady peace treaty with the Frost Giants, kept his people alive and protected, and destroyed the remains of the Dark Elf race as well as sealed away Surtur.

Loki uses his magic to pour ale over Fenris, then realizes that Fenris knows who did it.

The Warriors Three when they realize Thor and Loki stowed away on their boat.

Papa Wolf: Odin, who even admits he goes a little too far shielding his sons from the world.

Precision-Guided Boomerang: Parodied when Thor throws a (small, unenchanted) hammer in a bar fight, which proceeds to bounce between various objects until it cuts the rope on a chandelier above his opponent. Thor is shocked, and asks Loki if he bewitched the hammer. Loki, equally dumbfounded, says he didn't.

Thrym, surprisingly enough. He only starts a war because he's genuinely afraid of what Asgard might do with the Sword of Surtur at their disposal (a worry that is not entirely unwarranted), and calls off his troops as soon as Thor offers him the Sword and his apologies, sparing him, despite the two Jotuns Thor killed (albeit by accident), on the grounds that he averted a war and returned a weapon that would have killed many more.

Tragic Villain: Algrim. Given the fact that his family and whole people were slaughtered thanks in part to Odin it's no wonder he's pissed. Yes working with Surtur was stupid considering Surter's an Omnicidal Maniac who would have destroyed the Nine Realms, but again people can be stupid when desperate for a chance at victory.

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